Myth Bloggers
by Solthebookaddict
Summary: I was tasked with writing a series of short blog posts about Greek Myths. This was a project for my English class as we are reading the Odyssey and reviews with suggestions for how to improve it are much appreciated! Also you can feel free to suggest other myths you want me to write about!
1. The Prometheus Effect

Let's face it. The human race is a mess. A hot mess. A not in the cute, slightly stressed, tousled hair way. The bleary eyed, one hour of sleep, hunched over, stained clothing type of hot mess.

For centuries, mankind has been rather bad with maintaining the goodwill of any sort of promising inventions made to help us out and make life easier.

Rockets for space exploration and astronomy? No, used for weapons of mass destruction. Chemicals to help grow more soybeans? Try again, chemical that can cause deaths and birth defects in high amounts and concentration. A great insecticide to help grow more crops for the hungry? Wrong, a chemical used in gas chambers during the Holocaust to end thousands, if not millions, of lives. Fire to help the human race evolve? Not even close, the first step to helping humans destroy each other for years to come.

As they teach us in our health classes on drugs and addiction, there are many different substances like caffeine or sugar that we think are harmless, but can lead to something dangerous like meth or cocaine. These are called 'gateway drugs'. Drink a cup of coffee and the next thing you know you'll be addicted to crack cocaine. Okay... maybe not that extreme, but that kind of teaching is almost an exact parallel to the Prometheus Effect. It takes something that can be used for good and it turns into something else that has the potential for terrible and evil.

When there is light there is shadow. Where there is good there is evil. Where there is life, their is potential for more evil than good.

Fire was the world's gateway drug to pain and anguish and despair. Literally.

Prometheus thought it would be great to help mankind out and do them a little favor. He gave them fire as a gift. Fire was meant to give warmth and light and life. But instead, the humans decided to take this gift and shape it into something that can be used for evil. They crafted weapons and boats and destroyed each other instead of using this new technology they had to advance and live peacefully.

Humans were such stupid primitive beings back then.

Wait, hold that thought, I just got a Snapchat from my friend.

Alright, what did I miss? Right, this is a problem that is very evident in today's world. Social media, a concept invented to link people all over the world and help people get closer to each other is the very thing driving us all apart. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and Quotev (my own personal poison), all of these platforms are causing us to become isolated and socially awkward, stressed out and anxious, depressed and obese. None of these sound like they were intended effects. They never are. No one wakes up one morning and says, "Today I'm going to invent something to make the world obese and socially awkward once and for all!" and mean it in a positive way.

"It's for the birds yet we never stop tweeting  
Ain't no fun if we're not in front of a computer screen  
Let's go outside real life don't need a filter  
We're just slaves to our cellular providers  
What happened to good old fashioned talking to one another?  
Can't say hello if it uses up my data  
Snapchats and selfies, don't waste your time  
I wanna see you with my own eyes"

~"Anti Social Media" by Will Jay

Technology has opened up a new gateway into a world of lying and deceit. Your identity could be stolen, you can be hacked, you can get cat fished on a dating site, you can lose everything. And for what? All you do is stay indoors staring at a screen, destroying your eyes and your brain, worrying about what total strangers think about you. Sounds super great. You could almost say technology is a gateway drug for the modern world.

Fire is the gateway drug of the beginning.

Technology is the gateway drug of the modern world.

And feudalism is the gateway drug of the medieval world (but that's a topic for another time).


	2. Pandora's Box

I trust you all know the story of Pandora and Pandora's box-that-was-actually-a-jar-but-everyone-calls-it-a-box-so-we-just-roll-with-it. Pandora was created specifically to bring about the fall of mankind because Zeus was a bitter guy who didn't want the humans to overthrow him. The King of the Gods was a bit of a control freak. He made Hephaestus create her to be beautiful, but very stupid. She was 'bestowed' a fatal curiosity and she was brought to Epimetheus, Prometheus's brother who was all sad because his brother had been sentenced to eternal torment. He was given Pandora as a wife and he was thrilled. He wasn't so thrilled however when he received Zeus's second gift. A jar. Not just any jar. A jar that contained all the Spites Zeus wanted to unleash upon mankind. Hunger, Old Age, Sickness, Labor, and Treachery just to name a few.

As the days went on, Pandora grew curious about what was inside the jar. She just had to know. So despite her husband's cautions, she opened it and completed Zeus's plan of releasing them into the world. But one was inside the jar that Zeus had not noticed slipped inside. Hope. And all was not lost.

Curiosity killed the cat. The cat being all of mankind (mankind didn't actually die though), and Curiosity being Pandora. Her curiosity (and maybe a little lack of self control, but can you blame her? She was specifically made by the gods themselves to bring upon the doom of man) unleashed a jar full of Spites into the world. But why is her curiosity, her fatal flaw, viewed as such a bad thing? Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton asked why. Everyone thought he was crazy, but now he is revered. Many people see curiosity as a wondrous concept.

"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality," (Edmund Burke, philosopher and author).

"There are no foolish questions, and no man becomes a fool until he has stopped asking questions," (Charles Proteus Steinmetz, mathematician, engineer and professor).

Why was Pandora's curiosity so dangerous? Why did it unleash all these terrible things? Because that's what curiosity does. While it doesn't always unleash something bad at first, that's the direction things can move in. It's the Prometheus effect. You have a brilliant idea to help the world and you accomplish your goal of creating nuclear power plants to help industrialize energy forever, but instead of the world celebrating the new energy source, they use it to make weapons to end lives and entire nations.

Pandora's Box is now a term commonly used in news and articles and other things today. It means to unleash something that has never before been seen or similar to opening a can or worms. Things could go great, but more often than not, they go terribly wrong and a lot of good people die.

But not all is lost quite yet. While all these bad things were released from Pandora's jar, one thing had snuck in undetected.

Hope.

Hope was released out into the world and gave mankind something light in a world of darkness. A shining beacon to guide them throughout the new difficulties and hardships. The darkness and pain were real and terrifying, but so was hope. So _is_ hope. A small thread of hope can be the most powerful thing in the world and sometimes it's all you have when you have nothing else left. But if you have it, you have everything. It is the only thing _stronger_ than fear.

"Happiness can be found in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light," (Albus Dumbledore, former Headmaster of Hogwarts).

Now 'Pandora's Box' is used to describe something unprecedented, like opening a can of worms. Missile attacks? Opening Pandora's Box. Scientific breakthrough? Pandora's Box. Some view a Pandora's box as something best left closed, but you can't stop curiosity and knowledge. That is inevitable.


	3. Arachne's Transformation

"Change is hard at first, messy in the middle and and gorgeous at the end," (Robin Sharma). Canadian writer Robin Sharma has a point. Change is good and beneficial in life. If you stayed the same your entire life, it wouldn't be fun. It would be boring and could end up hurting you later in your future if you are afraid to take risks and change the way you think.

Take puberty for example. It is arguably one of the most awkward and annoying changes you experience in life, but afterwards you're different for better or for worse. Mostly for better. If you want more details, you can ask your school's health teacher about how your body is changing.

Though this isn't the case with Arachne. She was egotistical and rash and her weaving talent didn't help. Athena, the goddess of war and wisdom also invented weaving and taught it to the people of Greece. When people came to see Arachne's weavings they whispered saying how she was the best, second only to Athena. Arachne got mad, which is interesting because being better than everyone except a goddess is still a compliment. She claimed that she could beat Athena, and Athena, being a typical goddess with an ego and pride, came down from Mount Olympus and challenged her to a head to head weaving battle.

It took a very long time and after they had both finished, Athena was unable to find a flaw in Arachne's work and enraged she tore it up and hit Arachne in the face. Ouch. After that, Arachne tried to kill herself and Athena took pity on her and punished her by turning her into a spider, or an arachnid. Arachne's change from a woman to a spider isn't a great change, or even a good one, but it was still a humbling experience and Arachne had two options. Be bitter about it or learn from it. Let's all just hope she chose the latter.

But all isn't lost. Athena isn't all bad. She didn't turn Telemachus into a spider, or any bug for that matter. She turned him into a confident man who is rather in touch with his emotions as every time he speaks about his father or anything, he cries. Telemachus grew up without a father and a mother who did her best to raise him as a confident guy, but it just didn't go right. His home was invaded by suitors who wished to marry his mother and become King of Ithaca and he did nothing about it. After he spoke to Athena, she suited him up and he went through a solid transformation. It was like a mixture between Power Rangers and Sailor Moon transformation montages, he was nearly unrecognizable with his new confidence and presence.

Unlike Arachne, who's transformation and change was viewed as negative and brought spiders into the world, Telemachus's change was viewed as a good and positive change. As Timber Hawkeye said, "Don't let the concept of change scare you as much as the prospect of remaining unhappy." Telemachus, with prompting from Athena, got over the fear of change and emerged a better person.

Don't be afraid of change, it can be your metamorphosis to a better you. Let it improve you and benefit your future. All change is good, unless it involves drugs. Drugs are bad.


	4. Orpheus's Blinding Love

Love is an interesting thing. It can make you believe that up is down and left is right because of how blinding it can and will be. Love is always pure and innocent at first, but once you allow it to go unchecked, that is when you are doomed to spend the rest of eternity in a convoluted mindset. Don't get me wrong however, when the love is the right kind of love, then it is the best thing in the world.

Orpheus was the son of Apollo and the most talented musicians of his day. He was an all around golden child, talented, smart, and a great marriage with Eurydice. He had it all, but their perfection as Greece's "it couple" was fated to end shortly. They were too in love to see the truth.

When Eurydice went into the woods, a shepherd by the name of Aristaeus spotted her and was instantly infatuated by her beauty. Real charming. He made his advances and she shut him down, but he kept on going for it. Not the best move on his part because she ran away as fast as she could, only to be bitten by a snake as soon as she did escape and then she died shortly after.

Heartbroken and grieving, Orpheus entered the Underworld with the assistance of his father, Apollo. He charmed his way past all of the defenses and even Hades himself with his music. He just had to see Eurydice again.

The gods allowed him to take Eurydice back with him to the mortal world on one condition. Orpheus had to make it back to the mortal world and the light without looking back and his wife would be restored to a normal woman once more.

Delighted, Orpheus began making his way back out of the Underworld. He tried in vain to hear his wife following him, but he couldn't hear a single step. He started to doubt whether or not the deal was legitimate or if the gods had tricked him into leaving. As soon as he was a few steps away from the light, he lost faith and looked back, only to see Eurydice's shadow being whisked back to the depths of the Underworld as she had been right behind him.

Grieving once more, Orpheus only sang mourning songs until the day he died, which is a debate, but he welcomed death so he could be reunited with his wife once more.

I know this was a long story and a lot of people are thinking "wow Orpheus, you're such an idiot." Either for looking back or for going to the Underworld in the first place when he could have died. But a lot of the time, this is what love makes you do. As Bob Dylan said, "You can't be wise and in love at the same time." Everyone says that love makes you do stupid things, and Orpheus is a prime example of this. He risks his life to bring his wife back from the land of the dead, and right when he is so close, he messes it up because he couldn't trust.

He had a valid reason not to trust however. When have the gods ever been really nice and trustworthy towards mortals? If not, the gods make mortal lives harder because of their big heads and need to be the best at everything. Not to mention, Hades doesn't have the best reputation for being benevolent. Of course Orpheus doubted that he was being fooled. As much as he wanted to believe that what the King of the Dead said was true, he just couldn't and that was his downfall.

It is said that trust is like glass. It's a wondrous thing but is fragile and nearly impossible to repair once broken. Sadly, Orpheus had no glass with the gods, except maybe his father who convinced him to go and get his wife back.

Love on the other hand is more like a fire. It burns brightly and can provide warmth in the darkest of times, but can rage and destroy everything in its path. Orpheus's love consumed him and destroyed him in the end as he died shortly after his quest to the underworld failed and he lost his wife forever. He begged for death just so he could join her.

While Orpheus's love may not seem healthy, it was better than most. Orpheus and Eurydice were in fact in love. It was mutual and reciprocated with each other, unlike Aristaeus who had more of an infatuation and obsessive love towards Eurydice which was definitely not returned from her as when he began to make advances, she ran away. Take a hint man. No means no.

But all in all, love is a truly stupid thing that many people want to experience no matter how painful it is and how blinding it can be, twisting your perception and keeping you from learning the truth in life. (Don't take this as something negative towards love, I'm just trying to explain the story)

And up next I'll tell you all about the Trojan War and convoluted love triangles!


	5. Love Triangles Are No Fun

Love is a tricky subject. There are many types of it. Blinding, unhealthy, obsessive, pure, familial, platonic, romantic, sexual, painful, and more. What is more confusing is that you can romantically fall in love with more than one person.

There are many examples of love triangles in our culture today. Especially in our media. Our books, our TV shows and movies, Greek Mythology. It's everywhere. Typically if it has romance, there will be a love triangle. There was Bella, Edward, and Jacob from _Twilight_ , Gale, Katniss, and Peeta from _The Hunger Games_ , Jack, Cal, and Rose in the _Titanic_ , Lon, Noah, and Allie in _The Notebook_ , Meredith, Addison, and Derek in _Grey's Anatomy_ , Jennifer Aniston, Angelina Jolie, and Brad Pitt in real life. You get my point. They're everywhere!

Even more confusing are the love triangles that can't even be considered triangles. More like a dodecagon.

Take for example, Throne of Glass: Aelin/Celaena, Dorian, Chaol, Rowan, Sam, but then Dorian also is tied to Sorscha and Manon while Chaol also has a relationship with Nesryn, Rowan had Lyria, and Sam was dead before the first book. #Rowaelin ftw!

Another great example of a love triangle is Helen, Paris, and Menelaus. You can even call it a love rectangle if you include Paris's first wife Oenone. But in most cases, a love rectangle doesn't start an entire war and a bloody massacre on both sides. This is a complicated story, so buckle up and get comfortable.

It started with a wedding, ironic. Something meant to bring joy, instead triggered the start of something terrible. It was the wedding of Peleus and Thetis on Mount Olympus and all the gods were invited except for Eris, the goddess of discord. Makes sense you wouldn't want her to be at your wedding.

She grew bitter and angry at them for not including her so she devised a plan. She took a golden apple and wrote 'For the fairest,' on the tag and left it at the party to cause trouble. Eventually, Athena, Aphrodite, and Hera found it and began to quarrel over who it was for.

None of the other gods would venture an opinion favoring one, for fear of earning the enmity of the other two. Eventually, Zeus ordered Hermes to lead the three goddesses to Paris, a prince of Troy, who, unaware of his ancestry, was being raised as a shepherd in Mount Ida, because of a prophecy that he would be the downfall of Troy. After bathing in the spring of Ida, the goddesses appeared to him naked, either for the sake of winning or at Paris' request. Paris was unable to decide between them, so the goddesses resorted to bribes. Athena offered Paris wisdom, skill in battle, and the abilities of the greatest warriors; Hera offered him political power and control of all of Asia; and Aphrodite offered him the love of the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen of Sparta. Paris awarded the apple to Aphrodite, and, after several adventures, returned to Troy, where he was recognized by his royal family.

The most beautiful woman in the world, Helen was well sought after by many suitors. One of the suitors, Odysseus of Ithaca, proposed a plan to solve the dilemma. In exchange for Tyndareus' support of his own suit towards Penelope. he suggested that Tyndareus require all of Helen's suitors to promise that they would defend the marriage of Helen, regardless of whom he chose.

The suitors duly swore the required oath on the severed pieces of a horse, although not without a certain amount of grumbling.

Tyndareus chose Menelaus. Menelaus was a political choice on her father's part. He had wealth and power. He had humbly not petitioned for her himself, but instead sent his brother Agamemnon on his behalf. He had promised Aphrodite a hecatomb, a sacrifice of 100 oxen, if he won Helen, but forgot about it and earned her wrath. Menelaus inherited Tyndareus' throne of Sparta with Helen as his queen.

Paris, under the guise of a supposed diplomatic mission, went to Sparta to get Helen and bring her back to Troy. Before Helen could look up to see him enter the palace, she was shot with an arrow from Eros, and fell in love with Paris when she saw him, as promised by Aphrodite.

This was not the best plan as now Helen was in Troy and the Spartan were made because Helen was their queen. And because of the oath Odysseus and the other suitors made, most of Greece was obligated to help.

This kickstarted the Trojan War. A war that lasted about nine to ten years and resulted in a lot of people dying with the eventual winners being the Greeks. Helen returned to Sparta and everything went back to as normal as possible.

I don't think I've ever heard of a love triangle that started a war. That's a bit intense. Not to mention that Paris had a wife, Oenone, who he abandoned after he became a prince again and married Helen.

The entire thing was a mess with no real victors, bringing the downfall of Troy, Achilles, Hector, and Paris to name a few. Though it was one of the greatest conflicts of the Greek World, great doesn't mean good. It means big and bloody. It is arguably one of the most well known and narrated story in all of Ancient Greek history. If you've never heard of it before, then I guess it's not as widely spread as I thought.

But the most famous aspect of the entire war was the Trojan Horse.

The Trojan Horse is a tale from the Trojan War about the subterfuge that the Greeks used to enter the city of Troy and win the war. In the canonical version, after a fruitless 10-year siege, the Greeks constructed a huge wooden horse, and hid a select force of men inside. The Greeks pretended to sail away, and the Trojans pulled the horse into their city as a victory trophy. That night the Greek force crept out of the horse and opened the gates for the rest of the Greek army, which had sailed back under cover of night. The Greeks entered and destroyed the city of Troy, ending the war.

Metaphorically a "Trojan Horse" has come to mean any trick or stratagem that causes a target to invite a foe into a securely protected bastion or place. A malicious computer program which tricks users into willingly running it is also called a "Trojan horse" or simply a "Trojan".

The Trojan war and the love triangle that ignited it has become one for both classrooms and current media.

Don't let two people fall in love with you, that sort of thing never ends well.


	6. Mine Mine Mine Mine Midas

"This mailbox is mine

And this triagonal sign

That blue balloon

The month of June

They're mine, mine, mine, mine, mine

Ziggy's sweets are mine

That birdie's tweets are mine

The city streets

Both your feet

They're all emphatically mine" (Stingy from literally every episode of LazyTown. In this one he actually got a musical number about his greed).

Now if you've never seen Lazy Town, what was your childhood? It was one of my favorite shows as a little kid. But Stingy was always the character that made me the most angry when I was watching. As his name suggests, Stingy is extremely greedy. One episode, he stranded the mayor on the roof of a building because Stingy wanted his ladder. To quote him, "This plant is mine, this wagon is mine, and this ladder is mine."

Now who does that sound like? Your brother? Your sister? Your best friend? King Midas?

It reminds me of the last one, King Midas. Most people have heard some iteration of the story of King Midas and the Golden Touch.

Now King Midas was like and ancient Greek Stingy. Except he was fully grown and a pretty powerful king. Like that makes it any better.

Except, he wasn't possessive of everything like Stingy was, he was possessive over the valuable things like gold. Well, mostly gold. Actually, just gold according to most sources.

It started with Dionysus, who found that his old schoolmaster and foster father, the satyr Silenus, was missing. The old satyr had been drinking and had wandered away drunk, to be found by some Phrygian peasants who carried him to their king, Midas (some sources also say that Silenus passed out in Midas' rose garden instead of just wandering).

Midas recognized him and treated him hospitably, entertaining him for ten days with courtesy and hospitality, both of which were very important to the Greek way of life, while Silenus delighted Midas and his friends with stories and songs. On the eleventh day, he brought Silenus back to Dionysus in Lydia. Dionysus offered Midas his choice of whatever reward he wished for, because that's what gods did. They just handed out favors to mortals if they were cool, the gods didn't mind, they were divine. Midas asked that whatever he might touch should be changed into gold.

As you can probably tell, that was a great idea.

And if you couldn't tell, that previous line was supposed to be read sarcastically.

The next part of the story is the heavy hitter. Overwhelmed with joy at his new 'gift', Midas goes back to his palace, gleefully turning everything in sight into gold. He is ecstatic and turns every rose in the garden into gold. Not good.

He then goes to eat, but then soon realizes that he cannot eat nor drink because whenever it touches his mouth, his food turns to a solid metal and his drink becomes molten gold.

Then, things escalate. In some versions, his daughter comes in after she sees the roses are gold. She is understandably confused and upset so Midas tries to comfort her. As soon as he makes contact with her, she turns into a solid statue of gold.

He prayed to Dionysus, begging to be delivered from starvation. Dionysus heard his prayer, and consented; telling Midas to wash in the river Pactolus. Then, whatever he put into the water would be reversed of the touch.

Everything went more or less back to normal and Midas no longer had his golden touch. He had learned his lesson about gold. His greed and avarice had harmed those he loved and put his own life at risk. He would have died of starvation and dehydration if he hadn't given up his power.

As much as he loved gold,his life and his family were much more valuable to him.

As Rumi, a Muslim poet stated, "Greed makes a man blind and foolish, and makes him an easy prey for death."


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